Celebrate the season with some holiday coloring!

I love wintertime. The puff of your breath around your face in the chilled air, bundling up in fluffy layers to keep warm, and of course all the delicious treats that come along with the season. I wait all year for the decadent hot chocolate!

Now, with the rise in popularity of adult coloring books, there is a new way to celebrate the holidays: through Christmas coloring books!

I’ve scoured the internet for the highest-quality coloring books to share with you. Some of the books below are classics — Dover books I’ve enjoyed over many years of cozy winters. Some, however, are new and exist because of the recent coloring craze. Some haven’t even been released yet at the time of writing, but they look promising! As with any of my lists, I encourage you to click through to Amazon, see what other reviewers think, and look at the pages inside the book in more detail before you make a decision! But even then, you don’t need to worry too much — coloring books are some of the least expensive hobbies money can buy.

Another quick pro tip: Did you know that you can get your coloring books in just TWO DAYS with free shipping by signing up for a free trial of Amazon Prime? That’s almost as fast as buying your coloring books at the store, except you get a million times the selection and you don’t have to change out of your PJs! (Win-win!)

The trial lasts for 30 days, and there is no minimum order price in order to get the free shipping! Get those books ASAP by signing up for the free trial (click here!), and if you don’t want to keep the Prime benefits, just cancel before your 30 days are up. You might end up loving Prime, too — I know we do! With the amount we order from Amazon, I’m sure our Prime membership has paid for itself many times over in free shipping.

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Alright… let’s get down to business. Here are the best Christmas coloring books for adults, collected here for your artistic enjoyment!

Johanna Basford’s long-awaited Christmas coloring book for adults is full to the brim with tiny details and signs of the season for you to color. It is printed on medium weight, ivory colored paper with a bit of tooth to it in order to help colored pencils and pastels stick to the page.

According to the book’s description, “Hidden in this book are a flock of elusive little robins — can you spot them all?”

Early reports about the book say that it will contain 40 pages to color, printed just on one side, unlike earlier books by Johanna Basford.

This is not a regular coloring book, but instead a book of wintry postcards — the perfect size for a quick coloring session between wrapping gifts or while sipping a steaming cup of cocoa. (Don’t spill!) These illustrations were created for the postcard format, not sized down, so they are a comfortable line width to color despite the small pages. The binding is thick navy blue cardstock bound together with fabric, stamped with foil.

The paper is a sturdy ivory colored cardstock that is easily detached from the binding. There is an illustration to color on just the front of each card; the back is printed like the back of a postcard, with a spot marked for a stamp and room to write the address of the recipient and a message.

This would be a really creative way to send out your Christmas cards each year! There are 20 postcards in the book — who will your 20 lucky recipients be?

Daria Song is a celebrated Korean artist and illustrator, and The Night Voyage is her third adult coloring book. This coloring book takes place in the same sort of universe as her other books, with giant paper cranes that fly through the sky, old timey bicycles, hot air balloons, intricate cityscapes, hot air balloons, and more.

All of her books tell a story throughout the pages, and this one is no exception; a little girl is swept into a thrilling adventure by her toy train conductor, who comes to life and calls for her help distributing gifts around the world.

This book was just released and is ready to greet the 2016 holiday season! Grab your copy today.

Get in the Christmas spirit with this fun adult coloring book filled to the brim with holiday patterns, Christmas scenes, and festive doodles. It is illustrated in a free, hand-drawn style but still with clear black lines that one doesn’t need to struggle to follow. All the small spaces and details are perfect for more mature colorists, giving you a lot of room to build a gorgeous color scheme with the shades you select.

This book, like many, features 31 full-page (printed right to the edge) illustrations on heavy paper. Just in case the heavy paper isn’t enough for you, Peter Pauper Press has printed each illustration on just one side of the page, eliminating any problems with bleed-through. Hallelujah! Each page has small perforations that make it easy to remove the images for display. As a bonus, the paper is acid-free — great news for anyone who wants to create a masterpiece to save.

Peter Pauper Press is a new publisher to me, but I am impressed — the illustrations in this book really are high quality, and they’re fun to color! Indie coloring book publishers can sometimes have really frustrating printing flaws (printing the illustrations off-center or at too low a DPI, for example), or mediocre illustrations that aren’t polished enough — this book suffers from neither of these problems.

I really think you’re going to enjoy this coloring book. It’s very different from your standard Dover/Creative Haven coloring books (though I love these publishers, don’t get me wrong!) and is really fitting for the holiday season. De-stress with this beautiful book and click here to add it to your cart.

I don’t know if you’ve seen my Halloween coloring books list, but Jessica Mazurkiewicz’s “Scapes” series basically IS the holiday season to me. She’s got one for Halloween called HalloweenScapes, and ChristmasScapes goes along the same lines — beautiful patterns made up of the trappings of the season.

Here are just a few of the motifs you’ll find on the 31 single-sided pages of this book: candy canes, stockings, reindeers, sleigh balls, poinsettias, snowmen, pinecones, nutcrackers, ornaments, hot chocolate, angels, holly, silver bells, teddy bears, cardinals, and much much more.

One thing I really enjoy about this book in particular, and one of my favorite parts to color, are the borders. Every single image has a beautiful related border, surrounding your image with pinecones, holly leaves, swirls of tinsel… overall just a gorgeous collection of holiday imagery.

Can’t get enough of HalloweenScapes and ChristmasScapes? The Scapes series continues with WinterScapes!

This book features 31 more wintertime scenes illustrated by Jessica Mazurkiewicz. Like all Creative Haven books, the pages of this book are printed on just one side, with the opposite side left blank so that you can use any medium you want without worrying about bleed-through.

While ChristmasScapes is more Christmas-specific imagery, WinterScapes is more seasonal: there are pages of penguins, rabbits, wolves, snowmen, scarves and hats, deer, owls, snowflakes, holly, chickadees, pinetreees, hot chocolate and cookies, and more. Overall it’s a really nice collection and is great for carrying you through the whole season and into the New Year!

Creative Haven has been a little bit tricky this year, swapping out the covers of some of their older coloring books for new ones without actually changing anything inside. However, Winter Wonderland is a new Creative Haven coloring book, brand new for Christmas 2016, and illustrated by Teresa Goodridge.

The book features snowy landscapes, wintry activities like sledding and building snowmen, and cozy little homes decked out for the holidays. There are 31 pages to color, printed on just one side of medium weight, perforated paper.

If you love wintertime scenes, this is the book for you! Check it out on Amazon by clicking the images above.

This is another new Creative Haven title, out in mid-September and ready to get you in the Christmas spirit! It features 31 traditional, “vintage” inspired scenes with old-timey carolers, bustling shoppers, mistletoe, and Santa himself. Like all Creative Haven books, the illustrations are printed on just one side of medium weight, perforated paper.

Though the illustrations are not as detailed or intricate as some, that leaves a good amount of room for you to do your own shading and other coloring techniques. If you love the sample pages above, you’ll love this coloring book. Click the images above to see more.

When I was a kid, I remember having a Windows 95 computer game that was, essentially, a digital coloring book. One of the “pages” in it to color was a scene of a room with a Christmas tree, decked out with ornaments and tinsel, and surrounded by gift boxes. I would color and recolor that same illustration in so many ways. I would make the ornaments all different colors; then I would theme them, all blues and silvers or purples and golds; I even did a rainbow of colored ornaments up the tree. Sometimes I would color the Christmas tree another color, imagining it was a colorful pink or silver aluminum tree instead of a real one. I got so much enjoyment out of coloring that simple illustration of a Christmas tree.

This is the grown-up version of that coloring program from 20 years ago.

This gorgeous Christmas tree coloring book is currently in the top 20 best selling coloring books for adults in Amazon, and with good reason. The images are lovingly-detailed, decorated with lights and tinsel and bulbs and stars, and some pages revolve around themes: Victorian era, floral, woodland creatures, tropical. Coloring it is a relaxing way to ease yourself into the Christmas spirit.

There are 31 Christmas tree illustrations in total, and all but one also feature piles of presents beneath the tree. Creative Haven books like this one are printed with the colorist in mind, on reasonably heavy paper that is printed on just one side to prevent bleed from ruining an image on the opposite side. I still recommend putting paper in between if you plan to color it with markers while still in the book. The pages are perforated, making them easy to remove if you prefer coloring outside of the book.

Are you one of those people whose favorite kind of Christmas party is an ugly sweater party? (It’s okay, I am too.) If so, oh man, have I got the book for you.

This hilarious Christmas coloring book from Creative Haven features 31 of the gaudiest, most festive holiday sweaters you can imagine. Seriously, these things are the worst (or, as the case may be, the best). They’re printed on just one side, so when you’re done, rip them out and frame them!

Snowflakes. Reindeer. Christmas trees. TINSEL! Nutcrackers. Bows. Wreaths. Ornaments. Angels. Pies. Santas. There’s even a Thanksgiving sweater, a Kwanzaa vest, and two pages with sweaters for each of the twelve days of Christmas. Need I say more?

Most (but not all) sweaters are printed with a light grey sweater weave texture over them, to make your sweaters even more realistic. All are ridiculous.

Creative Haven’s Winter Scenes coloring book is illustrated by Marty Noble (you all know by now that I love her illustrations, right?) and while WinterScapes is more focused on patterns created by the trappings of the season, Winter Scenes is, as the title suggests, more based on actual scenes. Color snow-covered villages, children looking out of frosted-over windows, horse-drawn sleds, icy landscapes, children building snowmen, ice skating, wintry towns, and more.

This adult coloring book is great because while it is perfect for the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, it is also calming and non-specific enough to apply in January and February, too. (Or even into March depending how long it takes to thaw where you live!)

Mandalas are geometric patterns, typically in the round, that represent the universe in some Eastern religions. They are a common subject for coloring because they give you an opportunity to relax and focus on selecting colors and placing them down in repeated positions around the mandala.

This book of Yuletide mandalas is a real treat. Some are more abstract, with holly leaves and bells and snowflakes interwoven with geometric shapes, while other feature more realism, with a central angel or animals. Like most Creative Haven coloring books, there are 31 illustrations printed on just one side of the page, so your colors won’t bleed through and ruin another design. The pages are perforated, so you can remove them and hang them up (maybe around your tree?).

Snowflakes are an obvious theme for mandalas to explore, and Marty Noble explores them expertly in this beautiful collection of snowflake mandalas. Perfect for the entire winter season, this book features 31 beautifully kaleidoscopic mandalas to ruminate over. I picture this book colored in shades of blue, purple, and gold, like the cover, but just imagine the possibilities — the silver of tinsel, the deep green of pine in the background, maybe even some gradient shading to make parts of the image look like they are popping off the page.

Like all Creative Haven books, Snowflake Mandalas is printed on just one side of the page and pages are perforated so you can remove and display them easily. The paper is heavy enough to support pens and markers — either tear the one you are working on out of the book first, or put a few sheets of paper behind it to prevent bleed-through.

Maybe you wanted to color some snowflakes, but not in mandala format. If so, this is the book for you. The designs in this coloring book are a little simpler than the last, often with larger spaces to color — perfect for markers or colorists who want a little less detail. The larger spaces are a great excuse to practice your shading skills and make a gradient across the snowflake or in the background. Most of the snowflakes are presented large and in the center of the page, with smaller snowflakes around them.

Like all Creative Haven coloring books, this one has 31 pages to color on perforated, medium weight paper. Images are only printed on one side of the page.

Color With Music is a really unique series of square format coloring books that include a relaxation music CD right in the book! I reviewed several titles in the series in detail earlier this year. The books are square and top bound, with easily removable pages that come out like a notepad. There is a card that you can place throughout the book as you work to protect the page under the one you are working on. The 8 by 8 inch size is convenient for slipping into a purse or backpack.

If you own a lot of Dover/Creative Haven books, you may already have some of the images used in this book at another size. All of the images included were created by either Marty Noble or Jessica Mazurkiewicz and were licensed by Color With Music for use in these books. Just wanted to make sure avid colorists have fair warning before they accidentally buy repeats!

If you don’t have work by these artists though, or just love winter scenes, you’ll love Winter Wonderland! Pick up a copy on Amazon today!

Love cats? Love Christmas? Then you’ll love this coloring book, illustrated by Jason Hamilton, that combines both of these themes into one beautiful collection.

Every page features a realistic cat and a festive scene. Often the kitties are getting into trouble in some way, but not always! If you’ve ever had a cat and a Christmas tree in your home at the same time, you’ll appreciate the second illustration in the book, of a cat knocking over a Christmas tree!

This book features 24 illustrations on one side of 60 lb paper. Each design is printed twice in the book, once at full size and again at a 4″x6″ half size that is great for framing. The line art is detailed enough to color in solid blocks of color, but open enough that experienced colorists can interpret the drawings their own way, adding in shading and blending. You can color the cats any way you’d like — maybe every image is your own beloved tabby getting into trouble! A few sample pages are available to print for free on the artist’s website.

Overall, this book is a great gift or piece of holiday stress relief, by a brilliant independent coloring book artist. Pick up your copy right here!

This is a coloring book from late last year that didn’t get a whole lot of reviews, but I was impressed by some of the sample images I saw. It includes 50 illustrations printed on just one side of lightweight paper. Though the paper is relatively thin, you can use a few extra sheets of paper to protect the pages that follow if you plan to use a wet medium like markers. Each scene is intricately patterned with small spaces to color — it is easy to imagine filling this one in with many different hues of the same color family to create a beautifully patterned piece of coloring art.

To view more sample pages, click the images above to hop over to Amazon.

Festive Christmas is a coloring book illustrated by De-ann Black, the artist behind a number of other topical adult coloring books. There are 30 pages to color that include depictions of snowglobes, Christmas trees, winter birds, ornaments, holly, snowflakes, poinsettias, and more. The designs are intricate without being overly difficult, giving colorists room to fill spaces with a single color or practice blending. It is printed on just one side of the page, leaving the reverse blank.

Pick up a copy today — click the images above to read more about the book on Amazon!

Thaneeya McArdle is one of the bubbliest, most playful coloring book illustrators I know of, and it shows in her Design Originals titles, like Dapper Animals. She is known for providing dazzling sample pages within her coloring books, as well as including several pages of tips and techniques for patterning, coloring, and shading.

This particular book includes 30 coloring pages, printed on one side of perforated pages. The paper is a little on the thin side, so if you are coloring within the book, you will want to slip a few sheets of paper between the page you’re working on and the one behind it.

Looking for a collection of Jewish designs to color for the Hanukkah season? This book, illustrated by Freddie Levin and Judy Dick, is full of complex patterns and illustrations to color. The intricate images include motifs and references important to Jewish life, such as the Torah, Rosh Hashanah, and more. Everything is covered in looping, swirling details that are a delight to color.

This coloring book was illustrated by Jewish artist Adam Rhine, known for his ornate paintings of classic Judaic motifs. This book gives those designs new life in the form of 38 intricate pages to color, printed on one side with additional quotes, words of prayer, and information printed opposite. The paper is a medium to heavy weight that some markers bleed through and some do not, so test your markers on a title page first.

This Hebrew coloring book makes a great guide to the Jewish Holy Days. Visit Amazon by clicking the images above to learn more.

If you are busy (who isn’t?!), maybe your coloring doesn’t happen in long, relaxing sessions — maybe it happens in little snatches of time, here and there, where you can get away for just 20 or 30 minutes. If that sounds like you, this ornament coloring book might be the one for you.

Intricate Ornaments features 45 different ornaments to color, printed on one side of the page. They follow a similar format: the design is intricately patterned, but entirely contained within the shape of an ornament. That means that even though these images are quite detailed, they are also finite — you can complete one quickly and get on with your to do list.

In this unique square format coloring book illustrated by Lizzie Mary Cullen, colorists can explore the themes of the holiday season, all over the world. There are scenes by the Christmas tree, scenes in cities around the world, and wise men following a star. Santa’s sleigh makes an appearance, as do gingerbread houses and a Victorian toy shop. The pages are packed with lovely linework, giving you the opportunity to create a festive masterpiece on the page.

This beautiful Christmas-themed coloring book illustrated by Galadriel A. L. Thompson features beautiful linework to color in themes relevant to the holidays. There are wintry windowsills, intricate ornaments, and patterned cardinals waiting for your touch of color.

This beautiful Christmas coloring book will keep you occupied for weeks with nearly 100 illustrations to color. Mary Tanana’s gorgeous pen and ink work shines here, with themes based around wreaths, stockings, reindeer, snowflakes, gifts, trees, doves, and more. The images are intricate and a joy to color in. Several of the designs span the two page spread, and a couple of the designs feature beautiful hand-lettering.

The book is printed on fairly heavy paper; however the designs are still printed on both sides of the page. While pens and markers bleed through, one reviewer notes that her gel pens did not. If you do want to use markers in this book, you may need to sacrifice the reverse side, or scan yourself a copy to print out separately.

This coloring book, brand new for the 2015 Christmas season, brings A Christmas Carol to life in a beautiful and unique way. It is illustrated by Good Wives and Warriors, a creative partnership between UK illustrators Becky Bolton and Louise Chappell.

Escape to Christmas Past is smaller than your average coloring book, a little bit over seven inches square, which makes it a nice portable size. The images are lovingly detailed and some spread across two pages. If you can get your hands on a copy, you’ll love it — unfortunately, this book can be a little hard to find.

Part of a series of coloring books dedicated to classic novels, A Christmas Carol: A Coloring Classic is set to arrive in mid-October. I don’t know much about it yet, but I’ll be keeping my eyes on this one!

I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but how cute! I have seen a lot of Vive Le Color!’s other titles, and I am confident that this one will be just as well-received.

Vive Le Color!’s books are a little on the small side, clocking in at just under seven inches square, but that makes them great for tucking away into your bag or backpack. They come in the form of a top-bound coloring pad, printed on one side and easily detachable from the top. There are a full 72 pages to color, and a heavy cardboard backing so that you can color right in your lap.

You can preorder this book with Amazon’s “pre-order price guarantee” by clicking the images above — what that means is, if the price goes down any time between when you pre-order and when the book is released, you will only be charged the lowest price! So what are you waiting for?

Not much information is available about this book yet, which is set to arrive on October 18, 2016, but how adorable does this thing look?! As someone who loves cats and the holiday season, this book seems tailor made for me. (Psst — if you love cats, too, why not check out my list of adult coloring books about cats?)

The book is currently available for pre-order on Amazon, so don’t wait, claim your copy today!

Love coloring images of Christmas tress? Then you’ll love the unique, modern adaptations of Christmas trees presented by this coloring book. Candy trees, abstract trees, trees in city squares, even an urban Christmas “tree” made from a ladder with ornaments and lights strung across it. Maybe these trees will even inspire your own tree selection this year!

The images are a little more “hand drawn” and whimsical in feeling than some books, especially those by Dover/Creative Haven. Instead, these images are freer and looser.

There are 30 images of Christmas trees to color, printed on just one side of the page. The paper is pretty light and you will need to protect the pages below with a few sheets of paper if you are coloring in the book with pens or markers.

Coloring Christmas is another example of a whimsical coloring book with a delicate, hand-drawn feel. While this style isn’t for everyone, if the cover and the sample images above look like fun to you, then you’ll love this book, which is more of the same! The 25 illustrations explore many winter and Christmas themes, many with sweet hand-lettering within the design. Explore themes of trees, reindeer, wreaths, gingerbread houses, fireplaces and hearths, ornaments, Christmas banners, and more.

Each picture is printed on its own page, so you can use a few sheets between the one you’re on and the next one to prevent damage when using markers. This book has 5 stars on Amazon with a dozen reviews. Grab your copy here!

If you like the hand-drawn coloring book style and patterns, this book is a great merger of those two favorites for the holiday season.

Around 40 images are printed on one side of the page only. The paper is a medium weight and most media will bleed through, so protect the next page with a few sheets of paper. Each image is accompanied by seasonal quotes and inspirations which are perfect for setting the mood.

You guys know I love Marty Noble’s work. This time, she brings vintage greeting cards to life in this gorgeous collection of illustrations for Creative Haven. These are beautiful, old-fashioned Christmas scenes that are a delight to color; Noble leaves room in her illustrations for a nice amount of shading and additional detail from the colorist.

Like other Creative Haven books, there are 31 illustrations here, printed on one side only of medium weight paper. Pens and markers bleed through, so tear them out (the pages are perforated) or protect the next image with a few sheets of paper.

You’ll enjoy this book for many Christmases to come; you could even use this book to color your own greeting cards! This adult coloring book has 4.5 stars on Amazon with over 50 reviews! Add a copy to your cart by clicking here.

This is quite a nice book, illustrated by Robin Pickens for Design Originals. It focuses on the more Christian imagery surrounding Christmas: Nativity scenes, shepherds, wise men, angels, and more. There are interpretations of popular Christmas carols like The First Noel, Deck the Halls, and Silent Night. Many of the pages feature hand-lettering.

There are 32 illustrations in all, printed on one side of the page. The paper is a heavy weight but be sure to test for bleed-through before coloring with pens or markers.

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Thanks for reading another one of my coloring book roundups, I hope you enjoyed it! Please share it with your friends and family (at least those who color!) if you found it useful. You can also pin the image below to save this list for later!